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Clean Your Wooden Cutting Board The Right Way

by Leah Koenig

on 11/21/14 at 10:16 AM

Wooden cutting boards are the backbone of any well-functioning kitchen. They are solid, steady, and grip your knife securely as you dice an onion or hack through a thick-skinned squash. And because wood is relatively soft, it keeps your knives sharper than other cutting board surfaces, and act as beautiful, rustic serving platters.

Like any kitchen workhorse, wooden boards deserve respect -- particularly when you clean them. If not taken care of properly, they can turn into a smelly (and in some cases, moldy) mess. Fortunately, cleaning them thoroughly and gently is simple, and just takes a little elbow grease and a few everyday ingredients. Check out the method below and chop happily for years to come.

Keep It (Raw) Meat FreeMaintaining a wooden cutting board clean starts long before you suds it up with dish soap. While they are ideal for most kitchen tasks from slicing veggies, cubing tofu, and chopping nuts, to shaving chocolate or mincing a bunch of fresh herbs, it is best to steer clear of raw meat. A wooden board's surface is porous, making it the perfect place for bacteria from raw chicken or beef to hide. Stick to a non-porous plastic cutting board for meat, then use your wooden one for everything else.

Avoid the Evil DishwasherKeep your board out of the dishwasher, which can warp the wood or dry it out so much that it cracks or splits! Keep things old school instead and hand wash.

Scrub with Salt + LemonWashing a wooden cutting board with dish soap and water are critical to keeping it clean. But when you need to deep clean or remove pesky stains (think: beet juice), bring out the big guns: coarse salt and lemon juice. Sprinkle the salt liberally over the board, then slice a lemon in half and use it to rub the salt into the board. The salt acts as an abrasive to lift stains and the lemon juice leaves everything smelling great.

Eliminate Maximum MoistureAfter rinsing the soap (and salt and lemon juice) off of your board, take a dry dishtowel and give it a thorough pat dry. If water gets trapped in the grain, it can warp the wood and turn moldy quickly. But a solid towel dry after every wash (and making sure your board doesn't sit in a wet sink for too long) helps keep things fresh and mold free. After blotting the excess moisture off the board, stand it up to dry - do not lay it flat - to make sure air hits as much of the surface as possible.

Give Your Board an Oil ChangeOnce a month or so, hydrate your thirsty wood board with mineral oil. Use a soft, clean cloth to spread an even coat of mineral oil over the wood. Let the oil soak in for several hours, then use paper towels to blot off any excess. Voilà! A beautiful, functional board ready to take on the world -- or at least a pile of vegetables.

Hey Leah many thanks for such good suggestions. I must say that you have picked up a very good topic to explain. Wooden boards play a very important role for cutting purposes in the kitchen and cleaning them regularly is a must. I have purchased a wooden board from Vikingsun online store(http://www.vikingsun.se/) few days back and I am going to surely remember these tips and implement it while cleaning the board.

Always heard that hardwoods (oak & maple) were naturally antibacterial and pest-resistant (in terms of clapboard siding vs. vinyl which is quite a similar question) while soft woods like pine were not as much. In fact it looks like all wood does have this property from a quick online search (?)

More importantly, where is the recipe for the chicken dish pictured (with chimicurri & limes??), it looks delicious!

cdj60031 02:24:43 PM on 11/22/14

I've got a great meat carving board that I've had for many years...It's huge and can handle turkeys, hams, stand rib roasts etc. I first clean is with a scotch brite nonscratch scrubber with dish soap to cut any grease and then then thoroughly rinse. I then spray down with Clorox cleanup or a diluted bleach solution. Let sit a few minutes and rinse with very hot water. Dry thoroughly and leave it sit on the stove overnight to dry completely before putting away. I periodically rub beeswax wood conditioner for butcher blocks or bowls etc over it......

jean_coel 11:51:09 AM on 11/22/14

Sorry Epicurious, but you are completely wrong about raw meat on a wooden cutting board! Many tests have proven that plastic boards are far worse for cutting raw protein. Using knives on plastic cutting boards leaves scratches and slices in the board. The juices can settle in the scratches and is not always washed away when cleaned. That provides a nice comfortable place for bacteria to grow. The porosity of a wooden cutting board is exactly what prevents this from being a problem. Because wood is porous material bacteria is able to pass through the surface & settle inside. Inside the bacteria has no contact with food so it does not grow, it eventually dies. See studies done at University of California: Davis, by Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D, Food Safety Laboratory

renorose 05:44:13 AM on 11/22/14

I've owned my end-on-end maple cutting board for close to twenty years and use it for preparing everything. After working with meats I moisten it, scrape with a stainless steel bench scraper and repeat until all the gunk is gone. Every month or so it gets a fresh coat of beeswax/mineral oil blend. This works!

joy_see 11:28:13 AM on 11/21/14

I love having the tools I own.. I take my wood cutting boards to my wood shop once a year and grind off a few micron worth of janky surface with my random orbit sander. Looks like new after. And what is wrong with a little bleach if you are so worried about cooties from meat prep?

MandoSpaz 10:29:04 AM on 11/21/14

Just wondering - do these rules also apply to a bamboo cutting board? It seems reasonable, but I thought it worth asking.